While iOS 11 launched in September, there are a few features that you may not know about yet. Whether you are using an iPad rental or your own personal iPad, here are three features that will improve your iPad user experience.

1. Augmented Reality Compatibility

Pokémon GO is ok, and for what it was trying to do when it launched, it worked well. But Pokémon Go is just a launching point into a sea of possibilities for the future of augmented reality, and Apple seems to agree with this belief by including ARKit in the iOS 11 update

To be honest with you, the only AR application that I have found that personally interests me is the Ikea Place app, which helps you visualize what furniture would look like in your home by visualizing it for you. There are other AR applications on the App Store of course, and you should definitely try them out if given the chance! Hopefully Apple’s ARKit will help AR to develop into something greater than what it currently is.

2. Apple Pay Upgrades

The iOS 11 update brought Apple Pay compatibility to messages. So now you don’t have to use third party applications or use cash to pay back a friend or coworker who went out to get your lunch. Once your Apple Pay account receives the funds, you can transfer it back to your bank account or use it in the App Store.

3. More Apple Pencil Support

For the artsy, or those who use Apple Pencil for other uses, there are some nice improvements in this update. Users can now draw images in an inline drawing mode, meaning users can draw images between paragraphs of text. The Notes App has also been improved to be better able to find handwritten notes.

These are just a few of the features added to improve the user experience in iOS 11. There are a lot of other articles on the web if you are seeking additional information about features added to iOS 11. Happy Holidays!

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Unless you watch Apple’s activities with extreme diligence, you might not have noticed that the tech giant’s flagship tablet line has had an unannounced price increase. While this price increase won’t really affect you or your business at all in the immediate future if you are getting an iPad rental, this could affect you if you were planning on just buying an iPad.

Fortunately, not all iPad devices were affected by Apple’s price increase. Only the iPad Pro line saw an overnight increase in price of $50 per iPad. The only iPad Pro definitely not affected by this price increase was the 64GB memory model of both the 10.5-inch and the 12.9-inch iPad Pros.

The original price of the 10.5 Inch 256GB iPad Pro was $749, which has now been increased to the new price of $799. The 10.5 inch 512GB model has been increased from $949 to a cool $999. These are just the pricings of the WiFi only models by the way. If you want cellular compatible devices you’ll have to pay an extra $130 – that applies for both 10.5 inch and 12.9 inch models.

Now let’s look at the increase in the already more expensive 12.9 inch Wifi only models. The original price of the 12.9 inch 256GB model was $899, which increased to $949. The original price of the 12.9 inch 512GB model was $1099, and that price increased to $1149.

Once again, I just want to state that these prices are for the WiFi only models of the iPad Pro line, and that this is obviously before any tax has been calculated into the sale price.

Apple did not announce this price increase officially, or give an official statement saying why they did it. As internet users are prone to do, some people have made speculations as to why Apple increased the price of the iPad Pro line.

The best theory for the price increase that I have seen so far is that Apple is paying more for NAND and DRAM memory chips due to a short supply – caused by tech manufacturers buying up chips in advance of large technology products, and possibly also caused by the increase in the usage of SSD memory among desktop and laptop users – and that instead of taking a profit loss, Apple is passing the bill on to the consumer.

Whether or not you think that Apple would hand the bill off to their customers, at the end of the day it does not change the fact that the iPad Pro line has increased in price

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #Apple #iPadPro

It is no secret that Apple has a neglectful relationship with its MacBook Air models, and two years ago Apple discontinued the smaller of the two MacBook Air models. While I still strongly believe that Apple’s new 12 inch MacBook is the replacement of Apple’s MacBook Air line, Apple’s 2017 iPad Pro may be the second runner-up for the title of “MacBook Air Killer”.

Apple’s 2017 refresh of the iPad Pro features two iPad Pro models – a 10.5 inch display iPad Pro and a 12.9 inch display iPad Pro. Although extreme portability and lightweightness were two of the MacBook Air’s main selling points, the small size of the iPad Pro 10.5 inch model alone isn’t enough for it to replace a fully armed and operational laptop – which the MacBook Air is.

So besides being light and small, what would an iPad Pro rental have going for it? In terms of battery life the iPad Pro’s are pretty average in comparison to the tablets of other tech giants. Apple claims that both iPad Pro models have a 10 hour battery life, giving them an extra hour of operation above the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and the 11-inch MacBook Airs of 2015, but two hours less than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, which Samsung claims has a 12 hour battery life.

The display on both models of the iPad Pro are better than the display equipped on the current models of MacBook Air. Both iPad Pro models come equipped with retina displays, which the Air lacks. The 10.5 inch iPad Pro has a 2224-by-1668 resolution while the larger 12.9 inch iPad Pro has a resolution of 2732-by-2048. Both models display 264 pixels per inch.

The most impressive aspect of the new iPad Pro models is the A10X Fusion chip. The A10X is the processor and graphics card running the iPad Pro, and it is an impressive piece of hardware for a tablet. The A10X allows the iPad Pro to outperform some laptops in performance, but currently the iPad Pro is limited by its operating system. Once iOS 11 releases, the iPad Pro will become a much more productive device, as the operating system update has a strong focus on increasing the amount of multitasking capable for users, and it will also allow you to search your tablet files extensively, making the iOS more laptop like than mobile device oriented.

Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #iPadPro #Tablets

There are many things that can make us happy. One such thing is knowing that you have purchased an item that is easily worth the money you spent on it. The technology market is ever changing, but finding a true technological gem is easier said than done. To aid you in your search for greatness, we are providing you three great options to choose from in your hunt for the best tablet!

Google Pixel C

The Google Pixel C is a versatility machine. The Pixel C is sort of a tablet-laptop hybrid, but it also has several other features that make it stand out from other Android tablets such as:

A NVIDIA X1 quad-core processor for high speed performance

A full-size keyboard connected to the tablet through magnets

A display that has multi-angle capabilities

3 GB of LPDDR4 RAM

A 32/64 Gigabyte SSD

Even with all of these features, the Google Pixel C only weighs in at 0.517 kilograms, which is just a little over one pound. The Pixel C runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow for its operating system and is a powerful, quality tablet.

iPad Mini 4

Since this is an article about all tablets, Apple had to have a fighter in the ring. I’ve personally found that the size of the iPad Mini makes it a great device to use for your personal e-library; however the iPad Mini is capable of much more. Given its size of 7.9 inches, the iPad Mini packs some serious heat. Some distinguishing features you’ll get with an iPad Mini 4 are:

16/64/128 Gigabytes of storage

10 Hour battery life

Apple’s disembodied personal assistant, Siri

Cellular data usage capabilities

Access to the best applications through the App Store

The iPad Mini 4 currently comes with iOS 9. If you are considering getting an iPad, know that you will be getting some of the most user friendly technology in the tablet market bundled with Apple’s classic design.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 almost made it onto this list, but due to the Google Pixel C being extremely similar while having a more reasonable price point, discussion on the Surface Pro will have to wait for another day. A much more reasonable contender in a tablet competition is Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2. This tablet provides some serious competition for the iPad through the following features:

32/128 Gigabytes of storage

Choice between an 8” or 9.7” display

An Exynos 5433 AP chip

Optional Book Cover Keyboard

The Galaxy Tab S2 is a very sleek tablet which weighs in at .86 lbs for the 9.7” version, and only .58 lbs for the 8.0” version. While this tablet may not be as glamorous to you as Apple’s iPads, it makes up for it in pricing and storage space.

All three of these tablets are great choices if you are looking for the most dependable devices currently on the market. These tablets are great for both personal and business needs. If you need a tablet rental, you can get an affordable rate from us at RentOurTablets.com, or call us at 888-736-8301.Want to share this story on social media? Use these hashtags! #GalaxyTabS2 #iPad #PixelC

Last month Apple announced that iOS 10 will be releasing this fall and unveiled many of the bells and whistles which will accompany the operating system upon its release. Apple announced 10 new features for iOS10 which they thoroughly delved into during their presentation at the Worldwide Developers Conference, but we can give you a basic rundown of what iOS 10 will do for you.

New Looks

Apple has decided to update several visual aspects of your device with the release of iOS 10. Some fancy new graphics you can look forward to seeing include a redesigned lockscreen and a heavily improved Messages app. Improvements for the Messages app include videos sent inside messages can now be seen and played inside of the Messages app, and emojis will be displayed 3 times larger.

More Interactivity

iOS 10 is heavily focused on improving user experience through interactivity. To improve user interaction Apple has done a number of things. Most notably, Apple has opened Siri for developers, meaning you should expect some of the top apps, such as Twitter or Instagram, to start integrating Siri into their design. Apple has also taken several much smaller steps to ensure an increase in user interaction, including:

More notifications for the lockscreen and more things to do in apps from the lockscreen

QuickType can help you complete your messages in a more timely manner.

The Homekit app will now have house accessory support for accessories like security cameras and doorbells.

Your device will now be able to show you where you’ve taken your pictures on a world map, and will also be able to sort people into individual photo albums through facial recognition.

Apple News will present you with articles based on articles you have already read.

Higher Quality of Life

Apple has also announced several quality of life improvements which will release alongside iOS 10.Two such improvements are a redesign of the Apple News app and transcripts for voicemail messages. Apple plans to clean up the news app’s interface and give it easier to sort categories.

Apple unveiled many exciting things at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference which took place last week. One extremely important announcement was Swift Playgrounds.

Before discussing Swift Playgrounds, it is important to know what Swift is. For those of you who do not know, Swift is a programming language created and used by Apple that runs on many operating systems, including macOS, iOS, and Linux.

Swift Playgrounds is an application that has the goal of teaching Apple’s Swift coding while still being fun for the user. To accomplish this goal, Swift Playgrounds presents itself in the style of a video game.

Apple plans to use Swift coding for many years to come, and as a result Swift Playgrounds has the potential to be both a fun and extremely practical application.

Swift Playgrounds is planned to fully release this fall and will be available to download for free for all iPhone and iPad users. For additional information on Swift Playgrounds click here.

In 2012 it’s widely believed that Mitt Romney failed to become the 45th President Of The United States, not because he lost the boisterous battle for the hearts and minds of American voters, but because he lost the quiet and discreet back room battle of technology. And that’s how important technology has become in today’s campaign environment.

So, what’s a campaign staff to do when they need to outfit hundreds of volunteers with the latest in mobile technology for a big door to door voter drive? Simple, with one call to the experienced staff at Rentacomputer.com all the short term technology rental gear your campaign need, such as iPads, laptops, cell phones, and more, can be delivered right to your office, anywhere in the United States, for a fraction of the purchase price.

Company events are widely considered one of the best ways to grow your brand and provide useful information to attendees directly. When a business is hosting an event or training course, the typical run-of-the-mill presentations and paper evaluations can get very dull very quickly. What can you do to fix that problem? Well thankfully, for all of us, we have technology. Take the iPad for example. The tablet that made tablets practical, essentially. So how are you going to use this tablet technology to further your brand and help with attendee engagement? Just know that whether it be on the event floor or during the presentation, an iPad can really help bolster your event.

Think about how much paper you may use during the entirety of your event. The copier would be on overload. Instead, why not go a bit greener by using an iPad to take care of things such as speaker and presentation evaluations. Paper signups and registration can get a bit hectic at times as well, depending on the type of event you may be hosting. By putting these types of forms directly onto the iPad your company has provided, you can save paper and keep everything much more organized in the long run.

When your company hosts an event, you want to be as engaged with your attendees as possible. Communication is key in these types of situations. Everyone in the event industry can tell you about live tweeting during a presentation, and that’s just one of the ways an iPad can help. Hashtags aren’t just limited to Twitter anymore. We are now able to use hashtags on all major social media formats, thus making for a much more accessible conversation outlet. Whether it be a forum for attendees to talk about the event on, or if you’re using a hashtag to compose a poll or live tweeting question and answer session, the iPad can help you greatly.

Most attendees will respond to something more visual rather than something they have to read. A picture is worth a thousand words after all. Your attendees will be able to talk to loved ones back home with Skype coming standard on almost all iPads now. With incredible camera quality and processing power, the iPad will be able to display crystal clear pictures and the cameras do their jobs very well. Not only will the attendees’ video chats go well (depending on the internet strength), but they will also be able to take gorgeous pictures that can more easily be posted directly to social media and other sites. Anyone who may be a bit more into photography than others will be able to transfer their pictures taken on a phone, and send them directly to the iPad.

The use of an iPad during the presentation can be beneficial to attendees as well. We all know that nosebleed seats can make it hard for us to see. By having the iPad out during the presentation, you’re able to have the slide show play directly on the iPad through a master iPad controlling it. This way, those sitting in the back won’t have to strain their eyes, nor will they have to try to follow along as it will already be done for them. Think of this as well. Many more attendees will respond to an interactive presentation rather than watch another guy fiddle around with the same hand motion for 2 hours while he speaks.

When you bring the iPad into the play during the speakers presentation, he may become more engaged with the audience and vice versa. Attendees will be more interested especially if the presentation is being played through their respective iPads as well.

There is a multitude of different ways to help make your brand and/or company grow. One of the best and easiest ways to make that happen is at an event. With iPads, or any tablet for that matter, at your next event helping to make it a success, you can be sure that your brand and your audience will grow. Try utilizing iPads at your next business event and see the difference for yourself!

Acer is really stepping up their game with their new line of hybrids. The new Acer Aspire Switch 12 is probably the best one yet. It has a 12.5-inch display with Gorilla glass, a brand new processor that packs plenty of power, and a really well put together design that lets you get the most out of it in every mode.

Everyone has heard the rumors about Apple’s iPad Pro, but before you get too excited about it, you should really check into this new hybrid.The Switch 12 has a bigger screen than the iPad Pro is supposed to have, and it has a full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. The keyboard can be attached with a magnet or even used wirelessly. It has a kickstand built into the back of it that makes it more versatile than any of their other previous hybrids. It has five different modes that it can be used in due to the kickstand and wireless keyboard. These modes include notebook, tablet, display, tent and desktop mode. It is also going to look a little bit different than the rest of the Switch hybrids. Instead of being silver, it will be mainly black which gives it a sleek, sexy, and professional look. The included keyboard is full-sized so you won’t have any trouble getting adjusted to it. It also has a pen that comes with it so that you can jot down notes quickly as you think of them.The processor is Intel’s new Core M processor that keeps popping up in new devices. It packs plenty of power to do just about anything, and it runs super cool so that you never have to worry about it overheating no matter what task you are trying to accomplish. It has a built in microUSB 3.0 port and even a microHDMI port so you have a lot of options for connectivity. It will also come with two different options for storage space, one with 60GB of internal storage and one with 120GB of internal storage.Apple’s rumored iPad Pro doesn’t seem to be able to hold a candle to what the Switch 12 is capable of. If you were planning on picking one of those up when it comes out, I would urge you to reconsider.There has been no official word on how much Acer’s new hybrid will cost, but it’s coming out early next year so we should be hearing more about it very soon.

Mobile devices change and get better almost on a daily basis. This is one reason why Apple’s iPad sales have really been suffering lately. New stuff comes out that is better and cheaper, and phones are getting so big that people really don’t need tablets as much as they used to.

This is why Apple decided that they were going to refresh their line of iPads. They were going to revamp them and make them something awesome that people would be excited to buy again. But there is something that is really odd to me… If iPad sales are really that bad and they keep trying to find new cool things to add to them and make people buy them again, why is the new iPad mini the exact same thing that it has always been?

Specifications

If you look at the specs, it’s really confusing and laughable. It has the same exact 7.9 inch 2.048 x 1,536 display that last year’s Retina Mini had. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks good and everything. It looked good last year too though. What is the point?

That’s not where it ends though. Lots of new processors have come out in the past year. Even all of the Apple stuff got processor upgrades. So it is really surprising to see that the new iPad mini has the exact same A7 chip that last year’s model had. It runs at 1.27GHz and has 1GB of RAM. So it performs well in most situations, but there really isn’t anything to get excited about. Even the new iPad Air got an A8 chip and 2GB of RAM, which is a pretty good upgrade. So even if Apple decides to put out another version of the iPad Mini a few years from now, it’s probably only to get about as good as the current iPad Air anyway. I’m literally not even seeing one reason to upgrade yet.

The Big (Mini) Picture

If you are in the market for a small tablet, there really isn’t anything WRONG with the iPad Mini. It can get pretty much anything done, you can surf the web and play games flawlessly, check your email, and anything else. The whole point is just that they have been selling the same thing for years, and they seem like they don’t understand why their sales are suffering. Maybe the general public has caught on to the fact that there are other companies who actually put current technology into their devices, and that the name “Apple” doesn’t make your device any better. I don’t really know, but I do know that this was an overall very poor effort on Apple’s part.